Sunday night suppers tend to be a bit on the thrown-together side. We always menu plan for the week, but rarely make it all the way to Sunday. This weekend, we actually had our act together and managed to both get to the grocery store AND cook a delicious meal on Sunday. Hooray!

We chose to make smoky black bean quesadillas from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone because we had a few key ingredients in the house already and they looked like they would be relatively quick and easy. Here goes!

For the smoky black bean spread:

• 2 cups cooked black beans (we used canned)
• 1/2 cup water or bean broth
• 1 Tbs sunflower or safflower oil (we used grapeseed)
• 1/4 cup sliced scallion, including some green (we used onion because that’s what we had)
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp pureed chipotle chile or 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (we used 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder)
• Juice of 2 limes (we only used one)
• salt

1. Place water and beans in a small pot and warm through
2. Heat oil in a small skillet; add scallion and spices and cook over medium heat until tender, about 10 minutes
3. Stir in the cilantro and take off the heat
4. Coarsely puree the beans, scallion mixture, and chile in the food processor. Taste to adjust seasoning. Add lime juice and salt to sharpen the flavors.

For the quesadillas:

1. Spread the bean dip on a corn tortilla and place it in a lightly oiled skillet over low heat.
2. Layer with toppings of choice and then top with another tortilla. We opted for avocado, fresh tomatoes, shredded “Mexican” cheese blend, and fresh cilantro.
3. Flip over the quesadilla and warm the second side.

These were pretty quick, although waiting for the quesadillas to cook one at a time was a bit torturous! The black bean spread is a really nice balance of heat (chipotle), richness (beans), and bright flavors (lime and cilantro). It would be delicious with chips or veggies. Or spread it on an ordinary sandwich to take it to the next level. ; )

Enjoy!